Spiral cutter for rotary plows



Oct. 29, 1946. J. ,P. BAGAN 2,410,003

SPIRAL CUTTER FOR ROTARY FLOWS Original Filed April 29, 1940 2Sheet-Sheet 1 JO N PE 25/? BAGAW AZTO tleys 0d. 29, 1946. BAIGA'N 72,410,003

SPIRAL GUTTER FOR ROTARY FLOWS Original Filed April 29, 1940 2Sheets-Shget 2 111042 11101: JoH/v PETER BAGAN Patented Oct. 29, 1946SPIRAL CUTTER FOR ROTARY PLOWS John Peter Bagan, Portland, 0reg.,assignor of one-third to Anthony B. Wanezek, Marshfield,

Oreg.

Original application April 29, 1940, Serial No. 332,220. Divided andthis application February 14, 1944, Serial No. 522,320

This application relates to a spiral cutter construction for use inrotary spiral plows of the type disclosed in my application Serial No.332,- 220, filed April 29, 1940 (now Patent No. 2,342,- 030), and is adivision of said application.

The invention of this application resides in a cutter which is sodesigned i. e. having a right helicoidal portion adjacent the axisthereof and an oblique helicoidal portion adjacent the peripherythereof, the right helicoidal portion being of substantially the samethickness as the oblique helicoidal portion and therefore offering nosubstantial obstruction to the passage of soil through the cutter in adirection perpendicular to its axis, and the two halves or substantiallyequal end portions of the cutter being mounted on the same straightshaft to rotate together in the same direction but being of oppositepitch so that the end thrust of each portion due to its rotation incontact with the soil is counteracted by the substantially equal andopposite thrust of the other portion.

It will be understood that a properly designed cutter as described aboveand as more fully disclosed in my application Serial No. 332,220 abovereferred to does not, in operation, act to any great extent as a screwconveyor to move the dirt which it engages, laterally. It acts rather tocut the soil, pick it up and drop it again in substantially its originalposition. However; due to its spiral or helicoidal shape some end orlateral thrust occurs and the object of the invention is to counteractthe end thrust of one portion of the cutter by an equal and opposite endthrust of the other portion of the cutter so that the plow carrying thecutter easily may be held on its straight forward course. It will beapparent that the purpose and result of dividing the helicoidal cutterinto two parts with their pitches in opposite directions is not for thpurpose of producing either gutters or ridges in the cultivated grounddue to lateral movement of the soil. As has been pointed out above, suchlateral movement of the soil does not occur to any great extent with thedesign of cutter disclosed in my application Serial No. 332,220, and theobject of the present invention therefore is merely to steady theoperation of the plow.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which,

Fig. l is a plan View of a plow embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a side view thereof;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of a wheel bracket and a guide;

3 Claims. (01. 97-41) versal joint l2.

said drive shaft sleeve 21 to the power shaft l4 Fig. 4 is a fragmentaryperspective view of said wheel bracket;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view of. the guide; i

Fig. 6 isa detailed view of the operating mechanism for adjusting awheel tothe frame of said plow;

Fig. 7 is a rearward elevation of the cutter blade and operating devicestherefor, embodying my invention, some of said parts being shown insection to disclose features thereof;

Fig. 8 is an elevation of a modified type of cutter blade designed toprevent end thrust;

Fig. 9 is a more or less schematic view illustrating the construction ofthe ends of the cutter embodying the modification illustrated in Fig. 8;

Fig. 10 is a view similar to Fig. 8 with the spirals shown reversed andwith parts shown broken away to disclose detailed construction.

Referring to the structure illustrated in Figs. 1 to '7 of the drawings:

A plow embodying my invention comprises ,a cutter blade 4 mounted upon acutter shaft 5. Said cutter blade is mounted upon a center spirallywound flange 6 welded or otherwise secured to the cutter shaft 5. Aframe supporting said cutter blade comprises braces l and a main angleiron frame 8. A gear housing 9 is supported on the transverse channelmember 28 directly over the cutter blade and a shaft I'D extends forwardthereof. The forward end of said.

shaft if! is journalled in a bearing ll supported by the fram 8. A driveshaft sleeve 21 is operatively connected to shaft I 0 through a uni-Another universal joint l3 joins leading to the power take-off of atractor (not shown) for drawing and powering said plow. A bracket i5 isused for attaching the draw bar hitch 5?. to said tractor. Said draw barhitch has a brace l6 extending transversely thereof and is joined to theframe 8 by a pair of adjustable brackets H and bolts [8, 53 and 54..

A depth gauge Wheel. 22 carried by an offset axle 2| is supported bybearing !9. A screw lift rod 20 engaging a threaded bracket 26 isadapted to rotate said axle in said bearing to fix the Vertical heightof said depth gauge 22. Trailing the cutter blade is a dirt shield 23,and a furrow wheel 24 lies at the same side of the frame as does thedepth wheel 22, but rearwardly thereof. Said furrow Wheel 24 may beadjusted for height by a ratchet lever 25. This is shown more clearly inFig. 2. Said wheel is carried by a vertically adjustable axle 32 havinga sleeve 33 fixed there- 3 to. A quadrant 46 is engaged by the pawl onratchet lever '25 to fix the height at which said furrow wheel axle islifted.

At one end of said channel member 28 is mounted a housing 30 forenclosing an endless chain 48, engaging sprockets 49 and B. The cutterblade 4 is rotated by power transmitted from shaft ll] through saidchain and sprockets in the manner illustrated in Figs. 1 and 7.

' More or less transversely aligned with depth gauge wheel 22 but on theopposite side of the frame, is front furrow wheel 3|. Said furrow wheelis adjustable as to height by'ratchet lever 34 which is adapted toengage a sector of teeth 41 to lift and lower said wheel 3| in themanner similar to the structure for lifting and lowering furrow wheel 24by manipulation of the axle 35 for said wheel 3|.

If it is desired to use this type of plow for orchard cultivation, Iremove the front furrow wheel 3| and the structure associated therewithand'substitute a special frame'bracket illustrated inFigs. 3, 4 and 5.This bracket comprises a notched rack carrying wheel axle 45 and anotched bracket 2 adapted to be secured to a portion. of frame 8. Whenthe complementary notches on said bracket and said rack are inengagement, they may be held fast by threading a nut onto bolt 3 andsecuring said parts tightly in place.

Another type of wheel adjustment is illustrated in Fig. .6, which iscapable of being operated by means of'a crank. In said modification ahousing3f| is secured to the plow frame 8 and a tapped pinion 48 isthreaded upon axle rack 38. Then when pinion 40 is rotated by meshingwith gear 4|, said rack is moved up and down when crank rod 39 isrotated. Said crank rod 39 is journalled in a bracket 42 adjacent thehandle portion and is journalled adjacent gear 4| in housing bracket 44.Wheel axle 5| extends laterally from shaft 38 and thus said axle and thewheel carried thereby will be shifted vertically by the rotation of theinternally tapped gear 40, by the mechanism previously described.

The ends of shaft 5 are supported to the frame 1,8, 28 in bearingscarried by the housing and the vertical member 29 (see Fig. 7).

In Fig. 8 I illustrate a cutter blade made up of two oppositely woundoblique helicoidal sections 55 and 56 mounted upon a common shaft 51.Each. section comprises two intertwined blades 55a and 55b and 56a and56b carried by central flanges 58 and 59 Welded or secured to tubes 69and 5| closely surrounding and bearing upon said common shaft 51. At theouter ends of said sections are the cutter blades 62 and 63 (see Fig. 9)extending normally to the axis of rotation of the shaft 51 and servingas slicing cutters to shear off the turf where the aforesaid bladeenters the ground. The soil plowed and operated upon by each of saidsections tends to be moved slightly in the direction of twist of theobliquehelicoid blade sections- In said figure, the material would tendto be shifted slightly toward the center of and each surface of eachblade member 4 the cutter and away from the opposite ends thereof. InFig. 10, I illustrate how said sections can be reversed so that the soilwill tend to be shifted towards the opposite ends of the cutter blades.In this embodiment the cutter blades 64 and 65 are adjacent each otheron the inner ends of the two sections of the spiral cutter.Independently of whether the blades are arranged as shown in Fig. 8 orFig. 10, the dirt will not be shifted beyond the swath formed by theentire cutter blade made up of the said two sections.

In operation the rotary cutter is rotated in the same direction'as thewheels 22 24 and 3| of the plow so that the cutter tends to propel theplow forward and does not oppose the forward movement of the plow. Thecutter may be rotated at different rates but is always rotated at a ratewhich is much faster than corresponds to the forward movement of theplow if the cutter were rolling with its periphery in contact with thesurface of the ground. For example, whereas-the plow may moveforward ata rate of from say 1. to 5 miles per hour and the supporting wheelsIce-- ing say 2 feet in diameter may rotate or rollat a; rate of fromabout 15 revolutions per minute tov about '75 revolutions per minute,the spiral cutter may rotate at the rate of several hundred revolutionsper minute.- 7

I-claim: f

1. In a rotary spiral plow adapted for tractor operation comprising aframe, wheel supports for the frame, a spiral cuttermounted for rotationon a substantially horizontal axis on said frame, means for couplingsaid frame to a tractor to propel the same and means for coupling saidspiral cutter to a power take off of said tractor to rotate the same,said cutter comprising a straight unitary axial member and twohelicoidal blade members of substantially equal and opposite pitch andlength mounted substantially end to end on said axial member, each ofsaid blade members comprising an inner right helicoidal portion and anouter oblique helicoidal portion extending outwardly from the outer edgeof said inner right helicoidal portion, said portions being ofsubstantially the same uniform thickness and each surface of each blademember being substantially continuous.

2. Rotary plow as defined in claim 1 in which the cutter comprises twoportions of substantially equal length and each portion has at least twoparallel intertwined blade members.

3. A spiral cutter for rotary plows comprising astraight unitary axialmember, and two helicoidal blade members of substantially equal andopposite pitch and length mounted substantially end to end on said axialmember, each of said blade' members comprising an inner right helicoidalportion and an outer oblique helicoidal portion extending outwardly fromthe outer edge of. said inner right. helicoidal portion, said portionsbeing of substantially the same uniform thickness being substantiallycontinuous.

- JOHN PETER BAGAN.

